Hail & Farewell
by heraclitus1
Summary: Some of the main and/or recurring characters from ME1 deal with saying goodbye to a friend. Minor spoilers for ME2 in the event you haven't seen the opening 10 minute sequence of the game. Rated T. References to MShep/Ash pairing.
1. Urdnot Wrex

**HAIL & FAREWELL**

**Bioware's characters and story, not mine. I've just taken the creative liberty of imagining the circumstances behind when the main (or recurring) characters in ME1 say goodbye to Shepard prior to the events of ME2. By way of explanation, the term "hail and farewell" (or a facsimile thereof) is sometimes used in military circles for a unit function when everyone comes together and collectively greets the new guys and says goodbye to the ones who are leaving. I thought it was a somewhat appropriate term given the nature of what happens in between ME1 and ME2. Minor spoilers for ME2 in case you haven't seen the opening 10 minutes of the second game. Rated T.**

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Chapter 1: Urdnot Wrex

_SSV Normandy, 3 days after the Battle of the Citadel_

"Shepard."

"Wrex." Commander Shepard studied the krogan battlemaster. It was very uncommon for Wrex to start a conversation with anyone, even Shepard. It was even more uncommon for him to venture out from his lair in the belly of the cargo deck to do so. "You're leaving the Normandy, aren't you?"

"Yes." Wrex turned his head to the side momentarily, as if debating whether or not to give the commander an explanation. "I'm going back to Tuchanka. I'm not sure if I can restore the honor of my people, but I'm going to try. See if I can't help us rise above the genophage."

Shepard smirked. "So you've decided to be a hero after all."

Wrex chuckled, the deep throaty sound echoing through the empty passageways. "Don't start with me, Shepard, you know better." His face grew more serious. "I owe you a lot. You deserve to know that."

"You don't owe me anything, Wrex. You're one of my crew and the best warrior I've ever met. And for my part anyway," Shepard grinned at the krogan, "I consider you my friend."

Wrex merely grunted in reply, but he couldn't help but show how pleased he was at the unexpected compliment. He allowed himself to smile at the human before finally speaking. "That's high praise coming from you, Shepard. I'm honored."

"The feeling is mutual. Here, I want you to have this, from one warrior to another." The commander produced a long, black dagger with harsh, intricately carved crimson lines that Shepard could only guess were some type of writing. _Probably something about gutting your enemies and carving them into steaks,_ he mused to himself. "Hopefully you won't have to stab anyone with it when you get back home" he added out loud.

Wrex's eyes visibly widened in shock at the sight of the traditional krogan blade, and he reverently accepted the gift, noticing yet again the relentless fire in Commander Shepard's eyes. Warlord of the Normandy, he thought, not for the first time. _That wildfire is why we all followed you, Shepard. Even me._

"I found it a little while back on our last mission in the Hades Gamma cluster," Shepard volunteered, answering the unspoken question. "The ship's VI identified its make as krogan. I've been meaning to give it to you." Shepard noticed that Wrex's expression was almost identical to the time when they had recovered his grandfather's armor a few months prior. _What is that expression anyway?_ The commander paused and collected his thoughts for a second before continuing. "Thank you, Wrex. There's no way I could have stopped Sovereign or accomplished half the things we did without you."

"Maybe. But I doubt it. You would've figured something out. You're a battlemaster, Shepard. We both are."

"And battlemasters don't know how to lose."

Wrex grunted his assent. "It used to be that way." His smile broadened as he reached out and clasped Shepard's hand warmly. "And as long as we're both around, friend, it'll stay that way too."


	2. Ashley Williams

Chapter 2: Ashley Williams

_The Amada System, 1 month after the Battle of the Citadel_

It all happened too fast. The klaxons signaling a hull breach sounded mere seconds after the call for general quarters. The call for abandon ship went out less than a minute after that.

_What is happening? _Ash's mind was a whirlwind of confusion, but her training kicked in, and before she realized what she was doing, she was in her hardsuit and assisting with the evacuation on the cargo deck. Adams was dead, but he had helped get most of the others out of the engineering spaces. Garrus had grabbed Tali, and they were making their way to the escape pods on the lower deck.

"Come on, Williams!" Garrus was gesturing towards her to join them, his flanged voice sounding more strained than usual. "What are you waiting for?"

"Can't yet! Gotta get the others! You and Tali get out of here! Go!" Ash rushed towards the crawlspace and quickly made her way to the crew deck. She wanted to make sure all of her Marines got out okay. _And Shepard._ She was trying to convince herself that Shepard would somehow figure out a way to survive this after overcoming everything else that the galaxy had thrown at him during the course of his life, and yet... she couldn't shake the ominous feeling that he needed her right now. _Whatever happens, Ash, don't leave him. No matter what._

As she stumbled out of the crawlspace hatch, she almost immediately bumped into one of the Marine detachment squad leaders, Service Chief Jensen.

"Where's Shepard?" She hadn't meant to shout at him, but the Marine didn't notice; he just pointed past the mess hall towards the crew berthing area which was wreathed in scarlet flame. _Of course, he's helping his crew escape. Why did I even bother asking?_ "Status!"

"Vu and I did a sweep, ma'am. We're missing Lowe, Emerson, and Shenkle, but the rest of the Marines are accounted for and helping with the evac."

Ash felt her chest tighten. "Shenkle was with me on the cargo deck; he got away all right. You and Vutruong load up the others, and all of you get out of here. I'll try to find Lowe and Emerson."

"One more thing, ma'am. I overheard Garcia say that Joker won't leave the cockpit."

_Sonofa..._ "Go, Jensen, grab as many as you can and go! Now!" With that Ash took off sprinting up the ladder towards the command deck.

"Joker!" The hatch was open and she could see the irrepressible pilot still at his post, alone among the abandoned, burning workstations. "Come on, we hav-" The sudden explosion caused by the mysterious ship's particle beam cut off her warning and ripped the Normandy wide open, exposing the command deck to the vacuum of outer space. Ash was knocked her off her feet by the explosion's shockwave and sent careening back down the stairs just as the doors at the top sealed automatically. Apparently not all of the ship's safety measures were destroyed yet. "Dammit, Joker!" she growled. _We don't have time for hero crap! Not now! _She picked her helmet off the ground from where it had fallen. With all the toxic fumes from the smoke on this level she would need it to survive. Another explosion rocked the battered ship, and Ash knew what she had to do. As far as she was concerned, there was only one thing on the Normandy now that was worth losing everything to save. And he was in the middle of the fire. Ash flew down around the corner towards crew berthing, coming to an abrupt halt when she almost crashed into the very person she was looking for.

"Shepard!"

* * *

They got almost everyone off the Normandy, but as she scrubbed over the crew manifests, she still counted twenty-two crew members unaccounted for, including Joker and Shepard. The other twenty were, in all likelihood, KIA, but there was one more pod left, and she was confident that Shepard had gotten to it in time with their stubborn pilot in tow. As pissed as she'd been when Joker had refused to leave, Ashley had to admit that his flying had given the rest of them time to abandon ship. If not for that… Well, Ashley had never been a fan of playing the "what if?" game, but she would rest easier once they had them both back.

As she double checked the crew manifests from the other pods, Ashley noticed the final escape pod's signature pop up on her helmet HUD. _About time, Shepard. You almost had me worried there for a minute._ The last pod had left the Normandy several minutes after the others, so it had landed a good distance away from the rest of them. _No Mako this time around. Looks like we get to do this the old fashioned way._ She smiled ruefully under her helmet as she recalled something Shepard had said on more than one of their past missions. _Nothing's ever simple, is it?_

"Chief Jensen, establish 360 degree security around the LZ perimeter. Corporal McCann, see to the automatic weapon placement and indirect fire assets. Corporal Pacheco, anti-air weapon systems. Corporal Turner, get our long range comms up pronto. Commander Shepard got the distress beacon away before we abandoned ship; I want us remotely linked into the nearest comm buoy so we can contact the Alliance as soon as they enter the system!" Her orders were crisp and precise. The small Marine detachment aboard the Normandy was well trained - Ashley had seen to that personally - and she had no intention of either dying or watching any more crew members die before they were picked up by the Alliance. The security of their position was vitally important right now because they had crash landed in the heart of the Terminus systems. Ashley briefly considered tasking some of the Navy crew members, but decided against it; experience told her that Marines were more comfortable with their boots on the ground than their Navy counterparts, and if they really needed help, her Marines knew which crew members to ask. "Initiate force protocol victor 1-9, running password 'Driftwood.' I'm going to pick up the CO."

"Aye aye, ma'am." The Marines all acknowledged their orders.

_Good. They should be fine until I get back._ "Dr. Chakwas, ma'am. Could you please start triaging the wounded while I'm gone?"

"Certainly, Chief Williams." The doctor gave her a meaningful look. "Bring both of them back here safely."

"Will do, ma'am." Now she just had to retrieve the commander and Joker. She took a deep breath and opened a private comm channel to the three remaining members of the Normandy's primary ground team. "I'm going to Shepard's position."

"With you, Williams." It was Garrus, already trotting towards her, attaching his assault rifle to his back as he spoke.

"I am coming as well."

"Me too. Corporal Turner doesn't need my help setting up the comm link."

Ashley smiled in spite of herself. A few months ago she had never really considered the possibility of ever working with aliens, but now she couldn't imagine not serving with these three. She'd actually developed a grudging respect based friendship – if you could call it that – with Wrex before he'd abruptly departed four weeks ago. The others had remained, even Tali, despite being done with her pilgrimage. And now all of them had rogered up to come with her to look for Commander Shepard before she'd been able to ask. _Shepard was right about them. They're all right._ She chuckled slightly. _Even Liara._

"Okay, guys. Get ready to haul ass, because we've got a lot of ground to cover."

* * *

"Shepard! Commander Shepard!" Ashley's chest was heaving from exertion as she tried to hail the final escape pod. "Shepard, do you read me?" She slowed to a brisk jog as she came up to the hatch. As soon as she started slowing down she began to feel the cold wind cut through the thermal layer on her armor, and it crossed her mind that if Shepard and Joker weren't sealed in their suits, they would be in for a shock. _It's Noveria cold out here._

Garrus caught up with her, panting slightly. Under normal circumstances she would've been elated at having outrun the turian, but she was in no mood for gloating right now. Ash motioned for him to help her. With a grunt of exertion they both heaved the hatch of the escape pod open and...

_Waitaminute, where is he? _She locked sharply at the pilot, who was huddled at the bottom of the pod, his face in his hands. "Joker! Where the hell is Shepard?" _This has got to be some kind of cruel joke._

She heard the others finally arrive. "Shepard!" Tali called out as she and Liara ran up to them. "We're here!" But she and Liara both gasped when they looked in. "He got out... right?" Tali inquired doubtfully.

Joker was still seated, shaking his head and refusing to make eye contact with any of them.

"No," Liara replied softly, answering for the broken pilot. "He did not."

Disbelief finally gave way to despair, and Ashley collapsed in shock next to the pod. _No. Please, God, no. He's gone. He's really gone. Why?_ Somewhere in the distance she could hear the others trying to speak to her. _It doesn't matter any more. He's gone. Shepard's **gone**._ She wanted to scream, to cry, to say something, to do something, anything, but her mind and body were numb. _It should have been me. Why couldn't it have been me? We need him! **I** need him! Why did you take him away, God? Why...?_ She felt Liara kneel down beside her and wrap her arms around her in a comforting embrace. Usually Ashley would have made a deliberately acerbic remark to try to scare the asari away, but this time she just buried her head in the other woman's shoulder and wept.


	3. Liara T'Soni

Chapter 3: Liara T'Soni

_Arcturus Station, 6 days after the destruction of the Normandy_

_Brother._ The word had never held any significance for Liara before. But right now, it meant everything to her. It suddenly meant so much because for the first time in her life she had lost one.

She had always been intrigued by how other species interacted with two separate genders. The concept seemed so foreign to her, and yet so... so... she didn't even have a good way of describing it. It perplexed her that other species, and humans in particular for some reason that she couldn't fathom, seemed to need the other gender to be complete, to be whole. And not just physiologically, either; there seemed to be something happening on a deeper level that she and other mono-gendered asari, for all of their mental prowess, couldn't really understand.

She had been hard pressed initially to figure out exactly what she felt for Commander Shepard. Her rescue from Therum had been nothing short of exhilerating, and though as a scientist she had often found herself wishing for lengthier studies and fewer explosions during their many subsequent adventures, she couldn't deny that humanity's first spectre had an alluring flair for the dramatic.

Her infatuation with Commander Shepard initially put her on a collision course with Chief Williams, whose flirtations and amorous intentions towards the commander were thinly veiled at best, but the situation defused before it came close to getting out of hand because, of all things, the cipher. Sentient minds, she had unpleasantly discovered, were not nearly as structured as the inner workings of machinery; consequently, she had experienced a flood of emotions she had not expected when she joined her mind to Shepard's after Feros. She had felt his attraction for Ashley - and also his confusion - as keenly as if the emotion had been her own. She had tried to recover from her shock, but before she resumed her search for the cipher her curiosity had gotten the best of her. She had allowed herself to be on the lookout for anything that might indicate what he thought of _her_, and though she was successful, what she found startled her. It was an emotion that she had never experienced before. It was a fondness, concern, and devotion completely unlike anything she had every encountered or experienced before. But unlike the emotional bonds in Shepard's mind that connected him to Ashley, the emotions he felt for Liara had no intimate overtones. The realization that he viewed her in a loving but platonic way had been at once deflating and also a relief. Truth be told, Liara wasn't sure if she was ready for a committed relationship yet.

And now Commander Shepard, her brother, was missing. She refused to say "dead." She couldn't bring herself to believe that after everything he'd been through - surviving in the slums of Earth as an abandoned child suffering from the effects of eezo exposure, the ill-fated rescue mission on Akuze, the Theshaca Raids, Eden Prime and the fallout of being scarred by the Prothean beacon, Sovereign's attack... No. There was no conceivable way that he could have died in outer space from a surprise attack launched by... _Who, exactly?_ Almost as troubling as the fact that Shepard was MIA and the Normandy was destroyed was the way that they had no idea who or what that ship was or where it was from, let alone how it had known they were there or how its weapons had burned right through the Normandy's defenses. _We'll figure out that later. Right now we need to find Shepard and continue to search for a way to defeat the reapers._ Unfortunately, the others weren't being particularly helpful right now. She had spent nearly an hour trying to convince Ashley, Garrus, and Tali to not give up hope, that they should go search for the commander.

"Shepard would come after any of us if our roles were reversed," she pleaded with them. "Chief Williams," she locked eyes with the younger woman, "you love him." She spoke plainly, not mincing her words. The others already knew how her loyalty to Shepard had ultimately trumped her loyalty to the Alliance, culminating the night before Ilos. "You love him," she repeated, "so much so that you were willing to risk everything you had ever fought for, for him. Even if I am wrong and Commander Shepard really is dead, we cannot just leave him out there. You once told me that 'Marines never leave their own behind.' I know that you believe that, so why-?"

"What about Lieutenant Alenko at Virmire?" Tali piped up. "I don't recall us going back there after the nuke went off."

Ashley's head snapped from Liara to Tali and back again, her face a mural of emotions ranging from sorrow and anguish to anger and helplessness. She opened her mouth to speak, before promptly shutting it and looking down at the ground in an effort to hide her tears. In spite of herself Liara felt bad for the lone Marine. _Chief Williams is no condition to help right now anyway. Her spirit is broken, she is in mourning, she cannot see past her grief for her husband. No, wait, they were not married, he was her partner... boyfriend... lover? Goddess, human relationships are nearly as convoluted as Prothean hieroglyphs._

"Tali, surely you will help?" Shepard had done so much for all of them, but Tali especially owed him a great debt for helping her complete her pilgrimage.

The adolescent quarian was very quiet for a moment before finally speaking. "I... I admired Shepard more than any other captain I have ever met, even my father. But this whole thing is so... so hopeless." She shifted her weight uncomfortably. "There's not much reason for me to stay here, but there's even less reason for me to go on a wild chase across the galaxy on a quest even more impossible than finding the conduit. And my people need me. I will always remember Shepard, but there's nothing more I can do." Her voice was shaking. "I'm sorry."

"Garrus?" Liara was desperate but hopeful. He had been uncharacteristically quiet for the past several minutes. "Garrus, you know that Commander Shepard-"

"Don't you get it, Liara? It's over. He's gone." Garrus's voice was laced with bitterness. Ashley remained mute, either unable or unwilling to speak, and Tali sighed unhappily as if to agree.

_They are probably right, but Shepard trusted me when no one else did. I cannot betray his trust, his friendship, his… his love for all of us. _"No. Shepard never gave up on me. I will not give up on him. Not now. Not ever." She stood up, a resolute fire smoldering in her eyes and a crazy idea rapidly forming in her agile mind. "I am going to find my brother. And I think I know where to begin."


	4. Garrus Vakarian

Chapter 4: Garrus Vakarian

_Citadel Security Headquarters, 2 months after the destruction of the SSV Normandy_

Liara had departed for Omega. They had all tried to explain how pointless her search was, but she had refused to listen. It was a fool's errand, but at least she had purpose. _More than what the rest of us have right now,_ Garrus thought dejectedly. In a way he was jealous. When she left them, Liara had the exact same fire in her eyes that Commander Shepard used to get in his whenever someone had the audacity to tell him that something was impossible. _Even in death he still inspires us._

Garrus shook his head. He wished he could inspire others the way Shepard had inspired him… the way he had inspired all of them. Commander Shepard had taken a ragtag group of misfits – a turian who hated following orders, a human trying to redeem her family's honor, another one who was trying to justify his past, an asari who was alienated from her mother and by extension her people, a quarian trying to prove herself, and a krogan mercenary who fought for honor rather than credits – and turned them into an elite squad that had forever altered the face of the galaxy. What was that human expression he'd heard Lieutenant Alenko use once when talking about the Normandy's crew? _"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."_ It was the most fitting and accurate description of Shepard's team that Garrus ever heard. And they had been just that: Shepard's team. They had never been lackeys or sidekicks to the first human Spectre; he treated them like equals, encouraging and valuing their input, guiding all of them, collectively and individually, to become better versions of themselves. Garrus had never served under anyone like him before, and he doubted that he ever would again.

There was a tangible sadness, and not just because they'd all lost a friend. They'd lost the one person capable of holding them all together. Not long after Liara left, Tali decided to depart too, heading back to the Flotilla with the geth data that Shepard had given her. It was, she had remarked to Garrus sadly, Shepard's other gift to her; the first gift – the greater gift – had been his unconditional friendship. Tali's departure had taken more of toll on Garrus than he had anticipated. He had grown fond of young quarian, and he soon realized just how much he missed their constant bickering and teasing. Being the last remaining non-human from the Normandy's crew had been… awkward, to say the least. At first he'd wanted to stay as long as he could, as if somehow maintaining his connection to the remnants of the crew might miraculously bring Shepard back. It didn't, of course, but it had all been so sudden… He couldn't bear to think that it was really over, even though he knew it was.

_No. **NO.** It doesn't have to be over. Maybe Liara was on to something after all. Even though Shepard is dead, what he stood for, what he died for doesn't have to die with him. It **can't** die with him. As long as we're still alive, we have to carry on his legacy… Yeah, right, Vakarian, no one in their right mind would follow you the way they followed Shepard… Maybe, but as Chief Williams likes to say, 'there's always bad guys that need killing.' And if C-Sec won't let me do that here, well, 'there's always bad guys that need killing' out in the Terminus systems. I'll be able to make a difference there, to really help people. And maybe I'll even be able to honor Shepard's memory the way it should be honored: by putting high velocity armor-piercing rounds down range._

His mandibles twitched with anticipation for the first time in months, his mind still in a state of partial disbelief at what he had just decided to do.

_Even in death he still inspires us._


	5. Tali'Zorah vas Neema

Chapter 5: Tali'Zorah vas Neema

_Migrant Fleet, 6 months after the destruction of the Normandy_

"Ma'am, Sergeant Kal'Reegar reporting as ordered."

The voice shocked Tali out of her reverie. One of the new Marines assigned to her for her upcoming mission, 'Reegar came highly recommended from the Admiralty Board.

"Thank you, 'Reegar. And please, call me Tali." She hadn't originally intended to be so informal, but when she had thought back to how Shepard used to run his team, she realized that he had always been fairly informal as military customs went, especially when it came to the non-humans on the ground team, and... well, the results spoke for themselves.

"Begging your pardon, ma'am?"

Tali laughed in spite of herself. "I mean it. I want you to call me Tali, or Tali'Zorah if it's too informal for you. I may be in charge of this mission, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to get to know you and the others as people and not just potential statistics in case an operation goes south."

"I'll do my best, ma'am, uh, Miss Tali'Zorah, but habits die hard."

"Thank you, 'Reegar," she laughed. A sudden thought gave her pause. "You don't mind me calling you that, do you?"

"Miss Tali'Zorah, you're the commanding officer for our task force, so you can do whatever you damn well please. My job is to provide you and the other technicians overwatch security for this mission. I'm here to serve."

"Oh."

"But," he said in a more conciliatory tone, "you're welcome to call me 'Reegar. Kinda like it, in fact. Don't think anyone's called me that before."

"Well I'm happy to be the first, 'Reegar."

"Tali'Zorah."

She smiled behind her mask. _Maybe I'll be able to lead this team like Shepard led us after all. _He had given her the geth data module - so valuable to her people - for her pilgrimage, and he had been a true friend to her at a time when she had none, but now Tali began to recognize the other intangible gifts that Shepard had left with her: the tools to be an effective leader herself.

As the two quarians started discussing the details of the upcoming operation, Tali realized that her knowledge of squad tactics, simply from fighting alongside Shepard and seeing how he handled various combat situations, was considerably greater than what Kal'Reegar was expecting from her.

"Tali'Zorah, you're hands down the best non-infantry tactician I've ever met. Where did you learn all this?"

Tali was thankful that her faceplate prevented 'Reegar from seeing her blush at his compliment. "On my pilgrimage. I... Commander Shepard was the first human Spectre, and he let me accompany him on his mission, so I got to experience it all firsthand." She smiled in recollection. "He taught me."

"So the rumors are true?" He must have noticed from her body language that the question made her uncomfortable, because he continued. "Sorry, ma'am, I just meant that there's rumors going around the Neema - around the whole Migrant Fleet, really - that you were with Commander Shepard at ground zero fighting a battalion of geth infiltrators when the Citadel was attacked all those months ago. They say that the geth were following a rogue Spectre. There was also something about the krogan rebellions starting back up and getting quelled again, and a massive dreadnaught taking out a large chunk of the turian fleet. I didn't really pay much attention to rumors myself, ma'am, but I heard 'em."

"Well, the rumors are mostly true, in that case," she replied, choosing her words carefully. "There was no second krogan rebellion." _Not exactly, anyway. _Her mind went back to the confrontation between Shepard and Wrex on Virmire and the science labs they'd found. Liara in particular had been disgusted by the experiments taking place. "In fact, a krogan battlemaster was with us when we fought our way to the con- to the Citadel. And it wasn't just the turian fleet that was decimated by Sovereign." 'Reegar cocked his head sideways inquisitively. "Sovereign was the name of the dreadnaught," she explained. "But Commander Shepard was amazing. I don't think it even entered our minds that we might not succeed when he was leading us. He just had a way of... making you believe that anything was possible, that there was no way we could fail. It was inspiring. I've never met anyone like him before or since."

"Must be one hell of a CO."

Behind her mask Tali blinked away her tears. "Yes. He was."


	6. Barla Von

Chapter 8: Barla Von

_The Presidium, 7 days after the destruction of the SSV Normandy_

One of the benefits of being an information broker was that he always had a better grasp of current events than even those impacted by them. In this case, he found out about the Normandy's destruction and Commander Shepard's death mere days after it took place, even though the Human Alliance was still weeks away from making any kind of official statement. Barla Von had been an information broker long enough to know that most of the major players in the galaxy had heard about the Normandy before most of the Alliance leadership. Humanity was very adaptable and resourceful, but they had yet to achieve anything close to efficiency when it came to the finer points of galactic intrigue.

For his part, Barla Von was disappointed that the commander had passed. While he hadn't felt any particular attachment to Commander Shepard on a personal level, Barla Von had always had a great deal of respect for Shepard and what he had accomplished, both before and after becoming the first human Spectre. The commander had been a natural leader who always managed to bring out the best in those around him, whether at Eden Prime or Noveria or Feros… Though not a soldier himself, Barla Von understood that people like Shepard were uncommon in any species, even among the valiant, and that the loyalty they commanded could transcend even death.

So he wasn't surprised when the asari walked into his office and seated herself in front of him.

"Ah, Dr. T'Soni. I thought you might come, although I expected the earth-clan Williams to be accompanying you."

"Gunnery Chief Williams is… attending to some personal issues," Liara replied delicately as she took a seat opposite him. Looking up, she fixed him with a hard stare. "Though if you were able to guess that I would seek you out, then you probably already know what I am going to ask."

"I do, in fact. And I have a lead on Commander Shepard, but you won't like what you hear."

"That depends."

"There is something far more sinister at work than you realize, Dr. T'Soni." Barla Von paused. He was treading on very dangerous ground now. He knew that depending on his choice of words, he might very well be signing his own death warrant; the Shadow Broker did not suffer betrayal from anyone. But if what Barla Von had pieced together from various sources was correct, then they had all already been betrayed by the Shadow Broker. For his own sake, though, he would have to be very careful in how he communicated that to Dr. T'Soni. _Just enough to put her on the right path. She's smart enough to figure out the rest on her own and strong enough to deal with the consequences._ He finally spoke again. "My information alone will not be sufficient to help you, especially once you leave the confines of Citadel Space. You will need to know how to uncover the truth through layers of deceit, how to collect and analyze your own intelligence under duress, and how to use it to your advantage."

"I need to learn how to broker information." It was not a question. She understood his meaning perfectly.

Barla Von nodded.

"Very well." Liara leaned forward. "Teach me everything."

* * *

**For every one hundred men you send us,**

**Ten should not even be here.  
****Eighty are nothing but targets.  
****Nine of them are real fighters;  
****We are lucky to have them, they the battle make.  
****Ah, but the one. One of them is a warrior,  
****And he will bring the others back.**

**- Heraclitus, 500 BC**


End file.
